CHAPTER XXXII
MITHRAISM
Mithraism is Zoroastrianism contaminated with Semitic accretions. Of all the Indo-Iranian divinities, Mithra attained to the greatest prominence during this period. The Avestan texts constantly speak of Mithra as the lord of wide pastures, and Mithra gathered the largest number of flocks under his protection in the field of spirit. Iranian in its basic principles, Mithra's cult was soon surcharged with Semitic accretions and spread far and wide under this new syncretic form. The Achaemenian kings lived during winter in Babylonia. Here the Chaldaean astrolatry or the Semitic star worship was assimilated with the cult. Planets and constellations whose course was believed to determine all events of life received homage. Chaldaean theology assimilated Mithra to Shamash, the god of the Sun. Thus Mithra, though distinct from the Sun in Zoroastrian theology, was united with the Sun and called Sol invictus or the Invincible Sun, in the Roman mysteries.[1] In Asia Minor, Mithra was identified with local gods, and with the Greek gods at a later period. A blend of heterogeneous elements from Babylonia, Asia Minor, and Hellenic ideas ultimately gave him such a new form that his original traits were considerably concealed from sight.
Plutarch says that the Cilician pirates taken captive in 67 b.c. brought the cult of Mithra to Rome.[2] We have already seen from the activities of Mithra as described in the Avestan works that besides being the divinity of light and truth, he was also the tutelary divinity of the fighting armies. This warlike trait of Mithra appealed strongly to the martial instincts of the Roman legions that poured forth into the Parthian regions. The Romans recruited their auxiliary soldiers from Pontus, Cappadocia, Commagene, and Lesser Armenia, where the cult was popular, and these soldiers widely diffused it in Rome. The
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